The Tall Man AKA The Secret (2012)

 
The  theme of the 'wronged mama bear,' where every mother's worst fear is realized, stands as a common trope in horror and thriller films, and "The Tall Man" is no exception. This is better than "Flightplan," thank God, and puts a new spin on the worn theme of the child being snatched from the arms of the protective parent. Above all, it sports a pretty wicked twist, one that is unpredictable without being totally out there or ludicrous.

   I never would have picked up this movie if it weren't for director Pascal Laugier's previous film "Martyrs." The trailer to "The Tall Man" looked to be in kind of lame standard thriller-ish territory, so I decided to avoid it. When I finally got to watching it, I was pleasantly surprised. This is a well written, directed, and acted movie.

   Content-wise this isn't even in the same ballpark as "Martyrs," although I did see it got a nice 'R' rating from the MPAA. "The Tall Man" stars Jessica Biel as Julia, a nurse who seems to serve as a friend, neighbor, and basically a helping hand to everyone in the small town of Cold Rock, Washington. The children of Cold Rock are being abducted by a mysterious force known as the "The Tall Man," disappearing without a trace and baffling the local police force.


Julia has a son, David (Jakob Davies,) and periodically visits local woman Tracy (Samantha Ferris) and her teenage daughters, Carol (Katherine Ramdeen) and silent Jenny (Jodelle Ferland.) Tracy's boyfriend Steven (Teach Grant) impregnated Carol and menaces Julia when she comes to the house to check on the infant. He oozes class.

   When David is taken from Julia, Julia will do anything to get the boy back. The cool thing about this movie is that it takes you one one way and then- *BAM*-it steers you in a completely different direction. I won't tell you if the crimes of 'The Tall Man' are supernatural or not, because what would be the fun of that?

  Suffice to say it's fresh and exciting, Biel makes a adequate scream queen, and Jodelle Ferland is great as always. Jacob Davies (as the son) can't really act and settles on being mildly perturbed, but give him time. The supporting cast is good too. Samantha Ferris and Colleen Wheeler, as the mother of one of the disappeared kids are the standouts.

   One of the problems with the script is that Julia seems at parts to be too much of a 'supermom.' Between battling an attack dog and clinging to (and being dragged by) a abductor's van, it's a wonder this woman has the energy to get up in the morning. Altogether, though, this is a sadly underrated and overlooked horror/thriller.
                                              Rating-
                                                    7.5/10

The Hunger Games

Gary Ross' fourth feature portrays young adult writer Suzanne Collins' vision of the future. But this future does not bring flying cars, super-advanced robots or time travel. Instead it brings "The Hunger Games," a horrific celebration of totalitarianism and fear where twenty-four boys and girls, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, from twelve districts are brought to a large arena to fight to the death.

   Sounds an awful lot like Battle Royale, a 2000 Japanese film with a similar premise. However, The Hunger Games exceeds in acting, character development, and substance what was a somewhat underdeveloped bloodbath (albeit a creative one). Although this film pushes the PG-13 rating it has nowhere near the level of violence of Battle Royale and should be okay for kids over a certain age.

   The heart of this story is Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), who is forced to care for her beloved younger sister Primrose (talented newcomer Willow Shields) when her father gets blown up in a mining explosion and her mother falls into a deep depression. Her back-story bears some similarities to Lawrence's role in the rural thriller Winter's Bone back in 2000, but The Hunger Games is glossier, more action-packed, and goes in a completely different direction.

   In this year's Hunger Games, Katniss knows that her sensitive twelve-year-old sister, due to her age, has been placed in the drawing only a few times and statistically has a smaller chance of getting picked. To her horror, however, Primrose is drawn, and Katniss, knowing her sister doesn't stand a chance, volunteers to fight in her place.

   After leaving her potential love interest Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) and placing Primrose in the questionable care of her mother, Katniss heads by train to the capital, where she is introduced briefly to a luxurious lifestyle before being offered up in the arena like a sheep for the slaughter. The other kid from her district, Peeta Mellark, has harbored a crush on her for many years, which makes the circumstances of the situation even harder.

   Jennifer Lawrence is, at twenty-one, five years too old for the role, but her talent shines through, and her Katniss is a character to be appreciated. Her relationship with Peeta moved a little quicker than I would have liked, as after a crucial plot development they are hanging over each other like lovesick puppy dogs. Their friendship is more ambiguous and conflicted in the book.

   The other actors are good, including Stanley Tucci, Amanda Stenberg, and Woody Harrelson as drunken former child contestant Haymitch Abernathy. Tucci, despite not having as juicy a role as he did in The Lovely Bones, is good, and his portrayal of gaudy, grinning talk-show host Caesar Flickerman is a disturbingly on-target depiction of the fakeness and pomp and circumstance of reality TV. 

   The Muttations were well done. One of my main concerns about the movie adaptation was that they wouldn't be able to translate them onto the screen without becoming corny, and although they were not as horrifying as they were in the book, functioning instead as vicious, kinda-cute mastiff-looking creatures, the special effects people pulled them off.

   The Hunger Games is very much worth a ticket to the theater, although I would not recommend it to young or sensitive children. It is exciting, rousing science fiction with a message, and Katniss is a strong character worth rooting for.

Link to Quirky Bibliophiles review of the book: The Hunger Games.